Sean Nuyda called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m.

Present: Father Bob Betz, Carol Anger, Joseph Dulka, Chuck Frey, Leslie Henry, Noreen M. Klopp, Jerry Kromraj, Dan Lentz, Rich Lussier, Sean Nuyda, Don Slomski, and Tom Wisniewski

Excused/Absent: Father Ron Gramza (Excused), Ken D'Alessandro (Absent), Dennis Irwin (Excused), and Dave Spitzenberger (Excused)

Guests: Christine Fleming, Sister Louette Guenther, and Gary Hamilton

Opening Prayer: Dan Lentz led the group in the recitation of the prepared and distributed Opening Petition - May 20, 2004.

Welcome/Review Agenda:

Sean reminded members to pick up and read through their packets of materials for the council meeting prior to arrival on the scheduled date; these packets are ready at the parish office the Monday preceding the meeting. The guests were welcomed to the meeting.
Approval of Minutes of Meeting of April 15, 2004:

There being no additions or corrections to the prepared minutes, upon motion duly made and seconded, the minutes of the meeting of April 15, 2004 were approved.

Pastor's Comments:

Father Bob advised that the priests' annual meeting had taken place in early May, and summarized thoughts of one of the speakers, Fr. Bryan Massingale, who spoke of the present state of the Church by comparing it to a "hospice" situation, meaning that we must not dwell on the past Church or the shortage of priests or the changes taking place, but must live each day to the fullest, taking what the Spirit gives us today, whether it's the number of priests or other changes, and minister and be the best Catholics we can be at this time.

Father Bob also said that the district's priests met with the archbishop on May 19th and they had very candid conversations with him. Included was the priest shortage and the ordination of women and married men, the financing of the schools, and why the hierarchy is concerned with miniscule topics rather than more important things such as liturgical issues brought up recently. While the discussions were beneficial, there are no real answers to these questions.

Father Bob said a couple letters were received criticizing the recent First Holy Communion celebrations and he so informed the archbishop and requested his opinion, but the archbishop's response was that if no "essential" element was broken then no concern should be given to minor or non-essential things.

Committee Reports:

Administration. Tom Wisniewski reported that the Finance Committee was concentrating primarily on the budget issues.

The minutes of the Building & Grounds Committee were made available prior to the date of the meeting. It was stated that much of the report refers to long-range planning. The opinions given were that a lot of money, energy and resources should not be spent on some of the buildings because their future is uncertain. Any suggested work on any building by the committee must be brought to the Council for approval.

Human Concerns. Copies of this committee's minutes were made available prior to the date of the meeting. In addition, Jerry Kromraj stated that money is in reserve for the water project for our sister parish in Guatemala; the work on the project cannot be started at this time; a committee member's suggestion to forward the money to a different area in Guatemala for its immediate use and then transferred back to our sister parish when it is ready to begin work was rejected by the committee as an inappropriate action. Also, contributions by Divine Mercy parishioners were made to buy farm animals for families in Guatemala; it was learned that before delivering these animals to the people, a couple, originally from Ireland and who own a farm nearby, train the people on how to properly care for and raise the animals lest they immediately be used for food.

Parish Life. Copies of this committee's minutes were made available prior to the date of the meeting. In addition, Don Slomski mentioned that the committee is seeking volunteers to work for the Funfest scheduled for August 6th, 7th and 8th. The committee was planning on having a script program, but because the schools are also working on a script project, it was suggested that the two groups combine efforts on a single script program. A volunteer recognition night is tentatively scheduled for October 16th. It was mentioned that the parish's anniversary celebrations would be held on June 27th at every Mass at every church, rather than just one main Mass at one location, to eliminate obtaining additional presiders for Masses; volunteers will be requested to bring desserts; an all-parish picnic will be held at the College Avenue site following the day's last Mass with everyone bringing their own food.

Prayer & Worship: Copies of this committee's minutes were made available prior to the date of the meeting. Dan Lentz stated that the committee is running very smoothly.

Christian Formation. The Divine Mercy Christian Formation UPDATE of May 1, 2004 with attachments was made available prior to the date of the meeting. Noreen Klopp advised that there is nothing further to report on this committee.

School Board. Sean reported that some members had requested an accounting of the athletic department's income and expenses. He said they are also looking into a hot lunch program. The Home and School Association is in need of one more person to be on its Board. The School Board itself will be short one person. He also said the Board was unable to get someone to run a mentoring program, so that has been abandoned. Their next meeting is scheduled for June 10th rather than June 3rd.

Tom Wisniewski then stated that $25,000 to $30,000 is still due for tuition payments. Attempts have been made to contact people because of their non-payment but many have not returned telephone calls; letters will be mailed to them requesting that they contact the parish office regarding tuition payment. A recommendation will be made to the Council that enrollment for next year be denied to those students whose tuition has not been paid in full. The foregoing refers to non-hardship cases. If people are not participating in the FACTS program, then they will not be considered for enrollment; that is part of the school policy.

Long-Term Planning. Tom reported on the new series in the bulletin referred to as Did You Know? This is a new series of informational statements for the parishioners and is prepared by the committee. He also said there would be a survey mailed to every parishioner the first week of July; a second follow-up survey will be mailed in the fall. The first survey basically includes broad questions referring to the present or "here we are now," whereas the second will include questions of "where do we want to go." Tom also stated that they have requested the Prayer and Worship Committee to review and perhaps redesign the Sunday Mass schedule because of the undue stress on the priests. Responding to inquiries, Tom said they consider long-term planning as five years, with the finances and the schools being considered the most important issues.

OLD BUSINESS:

Parish Council Position. Sean introduced Richard Lussier as the person who will fill the vacant council position left by the resignation of Kim Backes. Rich, who was the chairperson of the council at St. Adalbert's prior to the merger and is presently a member of the Finance Committee, gave a short background of his personal life and that of his wife and their activities. Rich was approved as a council member and welcomed by the others. Sean then indicated that because the vice-chair position was still vacant, suggestions of a person for appointment to that position would be on the June 2004 agenda.

Policy on Building/Facility Usage for Non-Parish Sponsored Events. Sean reminded the Council that the Building & Grounds Committee has been working on the policy for building usage, and copies of the proposed Parishioner Facility Usage Policy for Non-Parish Sponsored Special Events and Facilities Usage Policy were then distributed. Any questions can be directed to Jerry Horzewski at the parish office; any other comments regarding the proposed policies can be e-mailed to Sean. Further discussion will be heard at the next council meeting.

NEW BUSINESS:

Approval of Parish Employee Handbook: The proposed handbook was distributed at the April meeting for review and for final action at the May meeting. Joe Dulka commented that direct deposit of payroll checks which had been agreed upon previously is not addressed in the handbook. Father Bob replied that that provision was not required to be included in the handbook. He also added that the handbook would be prepared in notebook fashion because of possible additions or revisions in the future. Another member questioned the grievance procedures as listed in the handbook, whether an employee could avoid one step, e.g., first talking with one's immediate supervisor, in order to advance to the following step. It was decided that the procedures should be followed in the prescribed sequence. The consensus of the Council was to approve the handbook as prepared.

Prayer and Worship Request for Council Assistance: Dan Lentz informed the group that Elizabeth Michalski, the coordinator of servers for the 13th, 16th and Marquette sites, would no longer continue in this role. The Prayer and Worship Committee is searching for someone to handle the scheduling for the 16th and the Marquette sites. Elizabeth will continue with the 13th Avenue site, and the College Avenue site has its own scheduler. It was suggested that the parents of the servers be the first to be contacted for this task. Noreen will make telephone calls to follow through on this request.

School Task Force Letter of Direction: A memo from Father Bob and Father Ron to the Council regarding the school issue was made available to all council members prior to the date of the meeting. Father Bob said that because the school is such a large part of the budget and because we cannot again have a deficit budget, the two pastors decided to offer their suggestions to the task force and school board. The letter includes various models for the school board to consider. October is the deadline for having a strong and viable school plan in place for not just the following school year but for the future as well. Another member indicated the necessity of reaching the goal of a 50/50 split in tuition. A motion was duly made and seconded to endorse the memo prepared by the pastors. Because the Council approved of the task force to study the school issue, that task force must be given an opportunity to present its suggestions. The School Board's recommendations are due to be presented to the Council by the October meeting.

Approval of 2004-2005 Fiscal Year Budget. The proposed budget was made available in April to council members for review, discussed at some length at that April meeting, and for final action at the May meeting. The Chair requested comments from individual members regarding the budget. In addition to the members being upset because of the continuing projected deficit, their responses and/or suggestions (on occasion more than once) were: decrease expenses other than salaries by 7½%; consolidate some of the jobs; hire a person or business manager to consolidate a couple positions to have better control of our budget and to better control expenses; check building usage and discontinue pouring money into certain antiquated buildings; people should be requested to be more frugal in all areas; if certain buildings will be repaired or torn down, that will be reflected in next year's budget; advise the parishioners of the tight financial situation and request additional contributions; parents of religious ed students should make at least a $10 weekly contribution. Other statements made included: the finance committee worked very hard on the budget and we must trust them; we must take significant steps to reduce the budget; though some parents of school children are not taking their children to weekend Mass, we must continue to enforce the rules regarding the $10 weekly donation; we are making a move in the right direction; we cannot afford to go with the way things are now going; we cannot go with two K4-8 school campuses and still have a viable budget.

[Departing from the budget discussions] It was then stated that a town hall meeting would be held on June 7th at 6:30 p.m. at the Marquette church site. Because it was not on Father Bob's calendar and though the date is his and Father Ron's day off, he inquired as to the subject matter and learned it was on the school issue. Gary Hamilton of the School Board's task force indicated that they want to inform the parishioners of the present situation of the schools and request their involvement. The task force intends to present various aspects involved, e.g., financial, facility, educational and marketing aspects. No one from the Council attends their meetings. He also talked about marketing the schools. At this point Father Bob pointed out that we should not have to "sell" the Catholic education and that we should not have to convince people to send their children to Catholic schools.

[Returning to the approval of the budget discussions] Summarizing the discussions, it was determined that everyone is discouraged with the projected deficit budget. Parishioners should be requested to contribute more generously to the parish. Parishioners with children in the day school as well as those in the religious ed program should be reminded of their agreed-upon minimum $10 weekly contributions. Don Slomski mentioned to Tom that the Council has received only one financial report within the last year, and he believes a monthly report should be received every month. Father Bob reminded all present that even though a deficit budget is projected, Divine Mercy Parish has much to be thankful for with buildings, staff, money in the bank, schools and other gifts, and we want to continue building on that.

The consensus of the council members was to approve the Divine Mercy 2004/2005 Budget as presented.

Other Announcements: Sean said the School Board's task force has requested that a council member attend its meetings. held twice each month. Carol Anger will attend its next meeting on June 1st at 6:30 p.m. at the College Avenue site.

Gary Hamilton requested permission for a member of the School Board's task force to speak to the congregation at each of the Masses the weekends of May 29/30 and June 5/6. An announcement will also be placed in the bulletin.

Sean requested that volunteers sign up to present the Council's announcements the weekend of June 5/6, 2004.

Closing Prayer:

Dan Lentz led the group in the recitation of the prepared and distributed Closing Thoughts - May 20, 2004.

Council Meeting Schedule:

The next Committee Meeting Night is set for Thursday, June 3, 2004 at 6:30 p.m. at College Avenue. The next regular council meeting is scheduled for Thursday, June 17, 2004 at 6:30 p.m. at Divine Mercy Office Building.

Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 8:55 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Marcy Gramza, Recording Secretary